The invention relates, in general, to offshore well drilling and production directed to the recovery of hydrocarbon deposits from deep sea beds and, more particularly, to a new and useful submarine structural arrangement.
The recovery of offshore oil deposits located in very deep sea waters currently presents significant problems, among which may be mentioned the impossibility of access to the control valves that are installed on a submerged well head located on the sea bed.
In an attempt to expedite this process a facility may be composed of a submarine base having a structure secured to the sea bottom; a bundle of tubular conductors secured to said submarine base, which vertically ascends from the base to an area of moderate depth, where the effect of the surface waves is negligible; a submarine buoy secured to the top end of the tubular conductor bundle, which has a certain ascensional force that makes it possible to keep the tubular conductor bundle under vertical tension, with said submarine buoy located in the aforementioned moderate-depth area; an assembly of control devices for the drilling and later production of hydrocarbons, installed on said submarine buoy, and said devices have the function of controlling the well heads located on the top end of each tubular conductor corresponding to each of the wells; and a top conductor which ascends from the submarine buoy to the sea surface, where the floating drilling or production plant is located.